country as we examine the events of men ghazi. we have an expeditionary diplomatic corps, and they do face very real risks every day, day in and day out. bad things have happened before, and bad things will happen again, unfortunately, in the future. there will always be a tension between the diplomatic imperative to get outside the wire and the security standards that require our diplomats to work behind high walls and full-body searches. we do not want to conner is tee that wire america off from the world. our challenge is to strike a balance between the necessity of the mission, available resources and toll wraps for risk -- tolerance for risk. we've talked about this on this committee. we've had hearingsings specifically about the design of our embassies, the danger of becoming a fortress america. we need to be safe, but we also need to send the right message to the people that we're trying to reach. i distinctly remember feeling and seeing the difficulty of this in vietnam where villages would examine us suspiciously and give us a stare, an unmistakeable stare that raises many mo

the congress and the country as we examine the events of men ghazi. we have an expeditionary diplomatic corps, and they do face very real risks every day, day in and day out. bad things have happened before, and bad things will happen again, unfortunately, in the future. there will always be a tension between the diplomatic imperative to get outside the wire and the security standards that require our diplomats to work behind high walls and full-body searches. we do not want to conner is tee that wire america off from the world. our challenge is to strike a balance between the necessity of the mission, available resources and toll wraps for risk -- tolerance for risk. we've talked about this on this committee. we've had hearingsings specifically about the design of our embassies, the danger of becoming a fortress america. we need to be safe, but we also need to send the right message to the people that we're trying to reach. i distinctly remember feeling and seeing the difficulty of this in vietnam where villages would examine us suspiciously and give us a stare, an unmistake

, ambassador stevens warned that libyans have introduced an alert in the ghazi. on september 9, ambassador stevens requested additional security two days before the attack happened. i knew him quite well. i have a great deal of respect for him. in light of these findings, these are facts that no one has argued. to either of you what to say that you agree with the statements that i have read in the report? >> senator, the statement in the report says that there were no specific tactical threat is a statement i believe to be a statement of fact. you are right to point out the pattern of deteriorating security on each of the incidents you discussed. amongst that deterioration are part of that deterioration was a byan violence.i we did not do a good enough job of connecting the dots of the troubling pattern. >> mr. secretary nides, you agree with the statement he made? for the record, if you could respond i would appreciate it. >> yes, sir, i do. >> the most significant question is not in the report and i would like to get a response to. were the comments of ambassador rice completely in a rac